The Lost Abare
by The Threat
Summary: Abaranger .Continuing with where I left off with 'Going Abare', this story pays tribute to the world's most famous detective.
1. Chapter 1

Though the days were getting colder, it wouldn't stop Mahoro and her daughter to go outside and spend some time in the park. As it appeared, little Mikoto was able to have some fun when being on the swings, which is all that Mahoro needed to be happy. Until a moment came that a man approached her. At first she wouldn't think anything of him, until he started speaking to her.

"Nice day, is it not?" he said, although he didn't sound like he wanted to hear Mahoro's thoughts about the weather.

Though there was this air about him that Mahoro couldn't quite place, she decided to tag along for the time being: "I'm used to different climates."

The man didn't say anything until a few seconds later: "So I hear. You're not from around here, are you?"

Some time later, we find the three of the Abarangers on their way to the Dino-House. Namely Ryouga, Yukito and Ranru. Having done what they had to do, each and everyone of them, they returned together. Ryouga was talking about what happened with Mai at school, but it wouldn't take long before the mood changed.

"... and then she came in between them so they'd stop fighting." Ryouga had only just said.

"Sounds like she's turning into a big girl." Ranru stated, "Maybe she won't need you anymore pretty soon."

"I should hope not." Ryouga laughed, until he noticed something about Yukito, "Now, you've been unusually quiet. Even to your standards."

Yukito looked at Ryouga for a moment, then turned his head away when replying: "I met this strange man earlier today."

Both Ryouga and Ranru showed some form of amazement on their faces, before Ranru decided to ask: "What kind of a man?"

"A tall one, wearing a long plaid coat and a plaid hat." Yukito described him.

That's when the other two were completely surprised, but Ryouga was the first to talk: "I met that guy too! He saw me with Mai, asked me how I feel about being a father, but somehow, the conversation took a different turn."

"He then started to ask about Akakuro with you too?" Ranru asked.

"Yes." Ryouga replied, "Why? Did he talk to you too?"

After Ranru nodded, Yukito deduced: "So somebody's trying to gather information about Doyle."

"But why?" Ranru asked, "Why would anyone be interested?"

"Someone's trying to find him?" Ryouga wondered, "Like his loved ones?"

"Or, since Doyle is an experiment to begin with..." Yukito realized, "... someone might want some more up-to-date info on him."

"Hammond..." Ranru whispered.

"Either way, it's best if we warn everyone." Ryouga decided.

The other two nodded, after which they set out to run back to the Dino-House.

Just as they arrived, Mahoro and Mikoto just arrived as well.

"Great, you're here." she sounded relieved, "There's this man I met in the park."

"Tall with plaid clothes?" Ryouga asked her, "We've met him too."

"But you didn't lose him." Yukito remarked as he pointed somewhere behind Mahoro.

And indeed, there stood the man in question, but he didn't appear to be intimidated at all: "Well... I was hoping to meet all of you at once one day."

"Are you another minion of Hammond?" Ranru asked him.

The man had a mixed expression on his face, before he answered: "Let's talk about that inside, shall we?"

"No!" Ranru stepped forward, as she raised her arm that had her Dino-brace. The other two followed her example.

"So you know him." Ryouga said, "Then there's no way we're letting you in."

In unison, the three shouted: "Bakuryuu Change!"

* * *

Disclaimer: other than the characters "Doyle" and "Hammond", characters used here are either owned by Toei Company, or based/inspired on the character originally created by Arthur Conan Doyle.


	2. Chapter 2

As the Abarangers were about to attack the man, somebody came in between them.

"Wait!" he shouted, "What did you henshin for?"

It took a while for everyone to realize it who it was that stopped them, as he was the last person they'd expect who would.

"Doyle?" Ryouga questioned, "What are you doing?"

"I asked you people first." Doyle replied.

"Trying to help you." Yukito sounded angry, "This man has been asking about you for..."

"I know." Doyle interrupted, "I asked him to."

This made everyone look unnaturally surprised.

Doyle smacked his forehead, after which Roxton said: "Don't be angry with them, they didn't know."

"It's not that." Doyle told him, "It's that face of theirs that makes them look like terrible TV-actors."

Once everyone was inside the house, the man in question introduced himself: "I'm Olmesu Shinya. I'm a private investigator."

"A detective?" Ryouga sounded surprised.

"I see." Yukito realized, "You hired him to find out about your past."

"Any bit helps." Doyle said.

"You could have told us." Ranru sounded angry.

As Doyle doesn't know what to do when Ranru gets angry, Roxton replied instead of him: "We could have, but Olmesu told us not to."

"It's quite simple." Olmesu explained, "When I ask you people about these Doyle, I get to know him a little better. And with what I know about him, through the eyes of others, I'm sure I may have an idea of where to start looking."

"But you still could have told us." Mahoro agreed.

"Maybe." Doyle replied, "But we had to be sure you'd be completely honest."

"Too bad that cover is blown now." Roxton remarked.

"Not necessarilly." Olmesu disagreed, "With what I know now, I'm sure I'll find out enough about you."

"And exactly how do you plan on paying him?" Yukito tried to see the realist side of this.

"We don't need to." Doyle answered.

"I've been retiring the past few years. It feels nice to finally face a new challenge." Olmesu explained, "I think it'd be rude if I charge any of you."

"Great to hear that." Nakadai suddenly let himself be heard, "So what did you find out so far?"

Olmesu looked at his notes: "So far, all I see is that Doyle's quiet, yet resourceful. Also seems to be fixed on this Ra..."

"I'm pretty sure we know all that already." Doyle interrupted.

Olmesu grinned: "Why you're quiet, I can quite understand, with what you've already experienced with the man who gave you both live. But..."

"But what?" Ryouga asked.

"His resourcefulness is what bothers me." Olmesu answered.

"I always thought it was our own instincts telling us what to do." Roxton explained.

"I don't think that's it." Olmesu disagreed, "As I've been told, you once just observed a fight and knew the best way to end it. You also knew how to abduct someone and..."

"That wasn't his fault!" Ranru exclaimed.

"... And how to cover your tracks." Olmesu continued uninterruptedly, "Not to mention you know perfectly well how to handle those weapons you use. Doesn't that bother you just one bit?"

Doyle didn't know what to say, but Nakadai did: "Are you saying he may have been a soldier?"

"He doesn't seem the type to join the military." Olmesu replied, "If he'd know how to handle, it could be learned or even self-taught, as a hobby. The reason thereto can be a lot of things, but I'm under the impression that his many... issues can have something to do with it."

"What issues?" Ranru asked.

That's when Asuka came into the room: "Great, you're all here. And who's he?"

"Perhaps we can discuss the rest more privately?" Doyle suggested.

"If you know a place where we can talk." Olmesu didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"How many places do we know?" Roxton asked Doyle.

"You remember those better than I do." Doyle replied, as he headed to the door, with Olmesu following him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Is there something he doesn't want us to know?" Ranru wondered.

"Maybe it has something to do with you." Ptera laughed.

"What do you need us here for again?" Nakadai asked Asuka.

"Right." Asuka remembered, "You all remember how Doyle broke Ryouga's shield before?"

"Yes." Ryouga replied, "He destroyed it when I tried to become Abare Max."

"You've been able to fix it then?" Mahoro asked.

Asuka shook his head: "It took a great force to break it at all. He's damaged it beyond repair."

"Can't anything happen with Dino Guts?" is what little Mikoto decided to ask.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Asuka sighed.

"Maybe not with our level of Dino Guts." Yukito figured, which caused everyone to look at him questioningly.

"What's wrong with our Dino Guts then?" Kera asked him.

"Don't you remember?" Yukito replied, "Like Asuka said, it took some great force to destroy the shield, so..."

"You think Akakuro-kun could fix it?" Ranru asked him.

"He hasn't shown us much of his Dino Guts since that one time he used Abare-Mode." Nakadai reminded everyone.

"Or shown much of himself at all." Ryouga realized, "I mean, when exactly did he meet that detective? Where does he go every time he disappears?"

"It would make you wonder what he's up to, wouldn't it?" Nakadai laughed.

Meanwhile, Doyle had arrived at the docks, along with Olmesu.

"I didn't think you'd choose a place like this." Olmesu remarked.

"Here, there's too much noise." Doyle replied.

"Less of a chance to be overheard." Roxton explained.

There was something about this which Olmesu didn't quite understand yet: "How does that work exactly, the two of you sharing one body?"

Doyle shrugged: "Never get lonely."

"Always have someone to talk to." Roxton added.

"Not to mention exchanging ideas." Doyle said.

"I'm sure you can do all that." Olmesu replied.

"So... what have you found out?" Doyle asked.

"Just one more question." Olmesu wondered, "Doesn't Roxton need to know anything about himself?"

"Not much for me to know." Roxton replied, "Based on my fossilized body, scientists already knew all they needed to know about me, and I read what they know about me."

"Allosaurusses weren't exactly a social species." Doyle explained, "So best to both of our knowledge he didn't have a family, or any he cared about anyway."

"Does that explain why you seek to escape from everyone every once in a while?" Olmesu asked.

Doyle didn't know what he was talking about, but Olmesu shrugged: "Never mind. So, about what I found out..."

That's when both Doyle and Roxton were all ears.

"Seeing as to how you panicked when I was about to mention Ranru's name, I know that you're quite insecure." Olmesu told him.

"He got that right." Roxton replied.

"This tells me that either you're not that popular with the women, or you've had some bad experiences with them. Or both." Olmesu continued, "Not to mention your next of kin, or perhaps your DNA."

This, Doyle did not understand: "What about those?"

"It's just a guess." Olmesu explained, "But I can think of only two reasons why that Hammond person would want to use you. One, you have no family, so nobody would want to claim your body. Two, there must be something special about your DNA, or the way that your body is built, that had Hammond choose you for his experiments."

"Does that help you to find out anything about me?" Doyle asked him.

"Well, all this and the fact you likely died at a hospital..." Olmesu replied, "... I'm pretty sure I'll find something."

"Best news we heard in the past months." Roxton remarked.

"So when will you know more?" Doyle asked.

"It may be a while." Olmesu answered, "It could take days, maybe even weeks. But rest assured, as soon as I know more, you'll be the first to know."

"So let's just be patient, then." Roxton remarked.

"I'm patient." Doyle said, "I only hope that Hammond won't find out about this."


	4. Chapter 4

As said, Olmesu searched every record in every school, every hospital,... any place that could have any idea of who Doyle was before he became... whatever he is. What he didn't know, however, was that his moves were being monitored.

A few weeks earlier, Hammond had come to a very interesting conclusion: that the one he called Al was developing two separate minds, one for Doyle and one for Roxton. Knowing this, he felt he trully needed to get his hands on Doyle as soon as possible. Having that in mind, Hammond decided that since Doyle has amnesia, there's still a possibility that he may somehow regain his memory. Knowing that, he created another monster, that would be able to spy on every place from Doyle's past, that might mean something to him. It would look like Olmesu was getting closer to an answer, as that monster returned to Hammond at some point.

"Hammond-sama!" it called, "Hammond-sama!"

"How nice it is to hear someone call me 'sama'." Hammond laughed, "So Morirabbity, did you find Al?"

"No." the monster, Morirabbity, answered, "But..."

"Then why did you come here?" Hammond asked, getting furious.

"Because we... I saw someone getting in and out of all the places you told me to watch."

This seemed to surprise Hammond: "Oh?"

"I didn't see Al, but I did see that man." Morirabbity repeated, "Do you think you're not the only one looking for him?"

"Maybe..." Hammond said, "... or maybe... could you take that man next time you see him?"

"Already on it, Hammond-sama."

And he wasn't lying. When Olmesu was about to walk into a elementary school, which happened to be the same one that Mai attended, he was confronted by what looked like a human-sized rabbit, who appeared to be having an old man's balding head. And that hair was as green as that green bit you'd find on top of a carrot when it's pulled out of the ground, not to mention that it's skin had the same color of a carrot. It was Morirabbity.

It said: "Two times one is two."

After saying that, it multiplied into two such monsters.

"Two times two is four." it then said, after which there were four of him.

Each one of the four carried around what looked like an old man's cane, which was used to beat Olmesu unconscious. Though he tried to put up a good fight, there were just too many for an old man to handle alone. When the fight was over, Morirabbity made the other three of him disappear, so he would carry Olmesu away himself.

What he didn't know, is that Mai had seen this happening outside her classroom window.


	5. Chapter 5

When Ryouga went to pick up, Mai, the latter insisted on returning to the Dino-house as soon as possible. Once they arrived, she immediately told everyone what she saw.

"I was afraid that Hammond would find out." Doyle sounded sad.

"Wait a minute." Yukito seemed to not have understood Mai's story entirely, "Did you say it was some kind of rabbit that multiplied itself?"

"Yes." Mai answered, but had a question of her own, "And what would Hammond find out?"

"So now Olmesu is in his hands." Ryouga realized, "It doesn't look like he wants you to know anything."

"Who's Olmesu?" Mai kept asking.

"Yes, thank you for clarifying what was already clear." Doyle snapped at him.

"Alright, you don't have to get rude." Ryouga bit back.

Doyle turned away from them, angrilly, when Roxton said: "What exactly is Hammond hiding?"

"How should I know!" Doyle bit at him as well.

"Look, I know this means a lot to you..." Nakadai then started talking to him.

"What means a lot?" Mai kept asking them, "What is going on?"

Eventually, Mahoro decided to help Mai: "I'll explain to you in the next room.

Just as she was about to leave, the Dino-house's alarm blared.

"That rabbit wouldn't be in town, would it?" Asuka wondered.

As there was only one way for the Abarangers to find out, they pulled on the T-rex's tooth that allowed all of the hidden screens and computers to show themselves. And on those screens, there was Hammond, along with an unconsious Olmesu.

"Hello, Al." Hammond said, sounding unusually calm.

"Hammond?" Nakadai appeared surprised.

"How did he know we could see anything on these screens?" Ranru wondered.

"How come we can see him, but not when he's kidnapping someone?" was Doyle's more realist question.

"I assume you know who this is?" Hammond asked, "If you want him to be free, you should return to me before sunset, there where you and your new friends have first met. Or else, I'll make sure you'll never find out what he now knows about you!"

That's when he disappeared from the screens.

"So if we deliver you to him..." Nakadai considered.

"What?!" both Doyle and Ranru shouted at him.

"... Olmesu is free. But if we do, then he'll never be able to tell you anything." Nakadai continued.

"And from what it looks like..." Yukito added, "... I don't think he'll tell Doyle much either."

"So I help Olmesu, but then I'm no wiser and he's dead..." Doyle thought about it, "... or I do, but then I won't be any wiser either, and who knows what Hammond will do once he accomplishes his goals."

Ranru appeared to know the answer: "Well, I have a plan, if you're interested."

Everyone looked at her expectingly, which causes her to smile.


	6. Chapter 6

As agreed, or rather forced to, they arrived at the site. Looking around, it caused some memories to come up among the Abarangers.

"I remember this." Asuka said, "First seeing that man wearing the armor of which I thought we had disposed of."

"And of course meeting with Akakuro-kun." Ranru mentioned.

Doyle didn't look at her when she said that. He had other things on his mind, but also remembered other things. How he saw them fighting Hammond, how seeing that somehow got him angry (as they were doing what he wanted to do), not to mention what went through him when he first met Ranru.

"Hey Doyle!" Yukito exclaimed to him, "Are you dreaming?"

Doyle was spooked, but recovered soon enough: "Sorry."

"This is also where you broke the shield." Ryouga mentioned.

Doyle sighed: "They're gonna keep getting back to that, aren't they?"

"Afraid so." Roxton replied.

"This is even more interesting than I thought!" everybody heard Hammond speaking from a little further away down the street, wearing the dark armor.

The Abarangers turned to look at him, but it was Nakadai who spoke: "Funny how you gave me my life too, yet it's Doyle that's so important to you."

"And yet... we can't seem to talk about anything else here." Roxton remarked.

"It's strange to see how you, Al, are developing two separete personalities for you, the human, and for the dinosaur." Hammond added.

"And I think it's a waste to keep up your fancy talk." Doyle replied, "Where's Olmesu?"

"Not so fast!" Hammond replied, as suddenly Morirabbity appeared, or rather a whole group of him did, "Did you think I'd let everyone just walk out of here alive?"

The Abarangers reacted instantly, by shouting: "Bakuryuu Change!"

Doyle looked at them do that: "For crying out loud..."

All he did was press the right buttons to change into Abaredevil himself, and attack the rabbits, followed by the rest shortly.

The fight took it's while, and Hammond appeared to enjoy watching this. At some point, Abareblack jumped out of the crowd and attacked Hammond, shortly followed by Abaredevil.

"Don't you need to help your friends?" Hammond wondered, when suddenly someone grabbed him from behind.

Abarekiller, who held Hammond, answered: "They got them covered."

Suddenly, all of the Morirabbity's disappeared, safe for one. Hammond looked surprised to see this: "What? How...?"

"Easy!" Abareyellow replied, "With this device I put together shortly after you told us what to do."

Abareyellow showed the device she was referring to, before continuing: "With it, I could see which one of these monsters was the real one, so all we have to do is find him, attack him."

"And the others would follow." Abareblue added.

"How's that?" Abared asked, rhetorically.

"And while we've answered your questions..." Abaredevil started, "... you better answer ours."

"I'd love to, but..." he pointed to Morirabbity as he spoke, the latter of whom got up again.

"Uh... did somebody shoot me, I'm not so sure." he said.

"He's still up?" Abared sounded surprised.

In this surprise, Hammond saw an opening to attack the ones holding him. In doing so, he inadvertently threw Abarekiller to a wooden box, which broke, only to reveal Olmesu.

Abaredevil, who saw this, didn't hesitate to run towards him, helping him if needed. Abareblack turned to Hammond, but he was already gone.

"Now where did he go to?" he wondered.

"If Hammond-sama doesn't want to stay, that's his choice." Morirabbity said, "As well as he wishes you all dead."

He then continued the fight with everybody. Abareblack decided to join them, as well did Abarekiller, who only just recovered from the surprise attack.


	7. Chapter 7

As the Abarangers were fighting Morirabbity, Abaredevil helped Olmesu up.

"Everything alright?" he asked him.

"I... think so." Olmesu answered, "What's going on here? Who are you?"

"Olmesu, it's me, Doyle." Abaredevil answered.

Olmesu looked surprised: "Er... am I supposed to know you?"

This surprised Abaredevil: "What? You don't remember me?"

"Perhaps you remember me." Roxton suggested.

Olmesu jumped up: "Huh? Did your wrist-watch just talk?"

Abaredevil took one step back at that. Olmesu did not seem to remember anything.

"Er... out of curiosity, do you know who you are?" Roxton asked him.

"I'm..." Olmesu started, but couldn't finish, "... I don't know."

Suddenly, he felt something weird in his pockets. He searched for it, then took it out. It were ash-rests of something. Olmesu didn't seem to know what it is, but It looked familiar to both Abaredevil and Roxton.

"Isn't that his notebook?" Roxton asked him.

"He... he took his memory and destroyed... his notebook?!" Abaredevil was shaking.

"So... Hammond didn't plan to keep his end of the bargain." Roxton added.

Abaredevil made his fist, as he kept shaking. He turned his head towards the other ones that were fighting Morirabbity.

In their fight, Morirabbity did multiply itself many times, only to destroy the machine that Abareyellow used, eventually taking down the whole group. Even when in Abare-mode, they were no match for him.

"You people are just too easy." Morirabbity told them, "Didn't Hammond-sama say you were stronger?"

That's when he noticed Abaredevil joining the scene.

"Ah! You come to play too?" he asked.

Abaredevil kept shaking. Eventually he raised his fists, as some kind of light appeared to engulf him.

"What's wrong with him?" Abarekiller wondered.

"His level of Dino Guts is rising?" Abareblack was surprised to see this too.

"Akakuro-kun..." Abareyellow whispered.

At that moment, Abaredevil roared, as the light seemed to get brighter.

"Maybe this is the best time for me..." Abared decided, when he took out his broken shield and threw it at Abaredevil.

The light engulfed the shield too, as the Abarangers hoped it would. Eventually, however, the light disappeared. Not only was the shield fixed, Abaredevil has gone into Abare-mode as well.

"That... is weird..." Morirabbity said.

Abaredevil didn't listen. At once, he attacked the rabbit. The latter tried to use every type of defense it knew, but no matter how many he made of himself, Abaredevil had become too strong for him. After a long time, Morirabbity was pinned down.

"Nice job!" Abared complimented him, as he raised his shield, "Now I'm gonna..."

Abaredevil knocked him down. Before Abared ask what that was for, Abaredevil already made his final move to destroy Morirabbity. Only then, he cooled down. He deactivated his suit, so everyone could see Doyle's enraged face.

"Akakuro-kun, what's wrong?" Abareyellow asked him.

Meanwhile, in Hammond's lair, his machines detected Morirabbity's demise, after which he pressed a few buttons.

"Try this now." he laughed.

Before their very eyes, Morirabbity grew into a giant. But Abared knew just the thing to do.

"Everyone, give me your Dino Guts." he told Abareblue and Abareyellow, as he held up his shield.

Once they gave him their Dino Guts, Abared could change into AbareMax. In this form, he called for Styraco, with which he formed MaxOhJa.

"Finally, we can fight like this again." AbareMax cheered.

Morirabbity didn't appear impressed by the appearance of MaxOhJa, so he did what he always did before. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated MaxOhJa's speed, as it was fast enough to pin Morirabbity down before he could do anything at all.

"What... what's going on?" he couldn't understand it.

AbareMax ignored him, as he got up and used a combination of Max Crusher and Max Thunder Spark to defeat him.

"That takes care of that." AbareMax couldn't be more happy.


	8. Chapter 8

Now that the monster was defeated, everyone returned to the Dino-house, taking Olmesu with them. Before they allowed him to leave at all, everyone told him his full name, which still didn't mean anything to him. But Ryunnosuke knew just the right thing to say.

"You told us before that you've retired." he said, "And were looking for a real challenge. Well, finding out about yourself may be the challenge you were looking for."

"If that's what I was looking for, then yes, I must have found it." Olmesu replied.

"Glad to hear you agree." Ryunnosuke added, after which he slipped him a few yen.

"Oh please, old man, I can't take that." Olmesu refused, "I mean..."

"No, you must, 'old man'." Ryunnosuke insisted, "It's only right."

Olmesu looked at the money he was given, then back at the curry-shop owner, then decided there was no way around it by putting the money in his pocket.

"Well, I hope I'll see you people again. You've been a great help." he said as he left.

Everyone bid him farewell, but still there was no real reason for anyone to be happy.

"It's sad that Doyle's plan failed." Yukito said, "Maybe he should have asked me to hire the F.B.I. again."

"I can guess how he'd react if you did that." Ryouga responded, "Remember when we thought we had found his parents again?"

"It's a sad thing." Ryunnosuke agreed, "But we can still hope that even if he won't know anything, he'd still have a happy life."

"That's something we can take care of." Ryouga was convinced.

"I'm sure we will!" Mai sounded cheerful.

"You're all quite the optimistic bunch." Nakadai remarked.

"I'm still worried though." Ranru didn't sound so happy, "I mean, it meant everything to Akakuro-kun that he'd find out about his past, and now the man who was to investigate him has lost his memory..."

"Yes." Asuka agreed, "And although his rage helped to fix the shield, it still worried me to see that there was so much of it."

"I don't think Doyle-sama would turn bad or anything." Mai was convinced.

"And why do you keep calling him Doyle-sama?" Ryouga wondered.

"At least in this life of his, he has one person that admires him." Yukito said, flatly, "Maybe a little too much."

"I'm sure she's fond of him, but not that much." Ranru told him.

"I wasn't talking about Mai." he replied, looking at her curiously.

Ranru didn't know what to say to what he just implied.

"Speaking of Doyle anyway." Asuka wondered, "Anyone saw where he was going?"

Neither one of them noticed, again, that he sneaked away from the group. This time, he was on top of a small mountain, looking down upon the city.

"What is it that has Hammond so obsessed about trying to hide my history? I can't understand it." Doyle complained.

"If he wants to try and persuade us to go back to him, he's going in the wrong way, isn't he?" Roxton reasoned.

Doyle allowed his head to rest on his knees: "He must be getting desperate. Still, he acts as though he doesn't want me to know anything. Wonder why."

"So he can tell you more lies?" Roxton thought out loud, "More things you must believe?"

"Why doesn't he try to tell me that some guy that lives at the Earth's poles would come to give me presents?" Doyle sarcastically remarks.

"At least two good things came out of it." Roxton said, "Since he was attacked at Mai's school, that must mean that your past is somewhere to be found in that school."

Doyle hadn't thought of it that way, still he wanted to know: "And the other thing?"

"Seeing as how everyone reacted to Olmesu's inquiry, it means that they would do anything to help you. That the Abarangers do care about you."

Doyle sighed: "I suppose it does. Still..."

"What? What's wrong?"

"All we know is that I might have been at Mai's school when I was younger, nothing more." Doyle replied, "I don't know my name or my exact age, so I don't know where I should look. I don't even know if any picture of me still exists. I have no way of knowing for sure if..."

A tear started to run down Doyle's face: "... if I'd find out anything."

"If not even a pep-talk from me helps anymore..." Roxton whined, "Now you're making me depressed."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Doyle replied.

"So now what do you wanna do?" Roxton asked.

Doyle looked out to the setting sun, after which he replied: "I don't know. I really need some company."

"You have me." Roxton reminded him.

"Someone less depressed than either one of us, I mean." Doyle replied, "Someone who may have a better understanding of what goes through me, as a person."

"I understand." Roxton replied, "But I gather you don't want the company of all of THEM at once, so right now is not the time to come back."

"No, you're right about that." Doyle replied.

Once night has fallen, Doyle returned to the Dino-house. Under normal circumstances he'd return to his own room. But he feels a little too down for that. Instead, he entered the room of the one person he always felt comfortable with, Ranru. He hoped she'd still be awake, but she wasn't. Seeing her lying in her bed as peacefully as she did, Doyle couldn't bear to even think of waking her up, just to talk to him. Instead, he decided to lay down next to her and wrap his arm around her. It wouldn't be the first time he spent an entire night in a room with her, but it is the first time he spent it with her like this. It gave him a warm feeling, which he desperately needed.

**THE END**


End file.
